Sen. Warner calls for a revision of the national cyber-politics

The US government has failed for decades to build a viable defense against foreign cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns and must shift tactics or risk losing the main battles of this century, said Senator Mark R. Warner in a cyber speech. -policy.

This shift should include greater investment in military cybertechnology, more funding for cybersecurity research and development, and a reinvigorated process of building international IT standards with allies and punishing nations that violate them, Warner (D-Va.) He said during a speech at the Center for a new think tank on American security.

A new global rule that the United States could support would be an agreement that nations will not affect their private companies, he said.

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Warner, which is the Democratic classification of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has attributed the US cyberdefense bankruptcies to numerous causes, including underinvestments in the departments of the State and Defense, the involuntary oversight of overlapping congress committees and market incentives that do not reward companies to invest in computer protection.

He also invited Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies, saying they are not doing enough to protect their platforms from malicious operations, such as the Russian campaign that spread misinformation ahead of the 2016 elections.

Warner, former telecommunications investment manager, is conducting the Senate investigation into Russia's influence campaign, along with Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

The government's under-investment in cybersecurity was partly driven by the naive belief that the free and open US Internet model would naturally beat Russian and Chinese models, which see the Internet as a place for commerce but also for business operations. censorship and misinformation, Warner said.

"In fact, China has been a huge success in exploiting the economic benefits of the Internet in the absence of political freedom," said Warner, adding that "today's cybernetic and censorship infrastructures of China are the envy of authoritarian regimes. worldwide".

Warner has criticized the lack of "presidential leadership" on cyber security and has misled the Trump administration to downsize the IT offices at the White House and the State Department.

He also indicated long-term maturities, such as the inability to adequately protect the major Pentagon weapon systems from cyberattacks.

Warner broke from typical government practices, urging the government to outline pre-defined responses to cyber attacks supported by the nation based on the perpetrator, the goal, and the severity of the attack.

These responses could range from economic prosecutions and sanctions to reprisals of cyberattacks and conventional military operations.

US officials have generally argued that it would be counterproductive to predetermine responses to a cyberattack because this would limit the flexibility of the government and invite opponents to reach a point that would send retaliation but will not overcome it.

Warner acknowledged, however, that it will not be easy to stop Russia's digital assaults and that the US's extreme dependence on Internet-connected technology would make it more vulnerable in an escalation of cyber conflict with its former Cold War adversary.

"If a cyber attack turns off Moscow for 24 hours without power, this is a problem," he said. "But if someone were to shut down New York for 24 hours without power – it would be a global crisis".